What is a Bento box? It is a beautiful Japanese lacquered box, traditionally packed with food delights for a single person to be taken to work or school. Now you too can try one at Nobu, who have two on offer for lunch and dinner for the winter season.
Ushered into the restaurant by the traditional shout “Ira-shai-ma-se”, “Welcome to our home” in Japanese, our delightful Kenyan waitress Mercy showed us to our table. Then came Keith, the sommelier, who we had met last week at Tracy Van Maaren’s trade tasting. Much study of the wine list had left us feeling rather winded as the prices are certainly some of the highest we have seen in the Cape. He persuaded us to have a bottle of Kleine Zalze Chenin Blanc, which he said would be (and it was) a very good match with our Bento boxes.
There is a lovely surprise when they arrive. The two long black lacquered boxes are double storeyed! So each Bento box gives you at least 7 different dishes and in the two boxes they do not duplicate any dish. We suggest you go and order one of each Bento box for two people and share as we did. The standard Bento box costs R275 and the Deluxe is R375. Both include dessert.
What is in the boxes? Salmon Sashimi salad with jalapeno sauce in one box and Seared Tuna salad with a mustard dressing in the other. Wonderfully fresh and crisp sautéed baby vegetables with a good dose of chilli. Two different fish Sushi rolls, prawn and tuna nigiri and sashimi fish plus our Nobu favourite, the tempura rock shrimp, which comes with its own dedicated Ponzu dipping sauce. You also get Nobu’s iconic jalapeño dip to go with the tempura white fish in the other box. Beef wing rib anti cucho, off the bone, is sliced and covered in a sauce which tasted of chilli, cumin and tomato; rolled white fish sashimi in a deliciously fragrant citrus and lemongrass sauce and another in the other box that tasted like thinly sliced scallop. The soft roasted aubergine, Nasu, in miso dusted with sesame was also very good. The teriyaki chicken was slightly dry. The rice in the sushi has absolutely perfect pearls of separate rice grains that stick together but are not at all mushy – made by experts.
There are two desserts to choose from.
In another smaller bento box there is a warm squidgy and oozy rich chocolate fondant with a green tea ice cream which we (unwillingly!) shared. Or you can have the Suntory whisky cappuccino dessert, served in a cappuccino cup. You are instructed to be sure to scoop down to the bottom to get all the layers of coffee-flavoured Crème brûlée, whipped cream, whiskey and bits of roasted coffee beans, which we found rather too crunchy. Other than good black coffee, Lynne is not a fan of anything coffee flavoured, but that doesn’t mean this wasn’t a very good dessert indeed.
There is more than enough food for two, so it is good if you are feeling greedy. One of the highlights of the One and Only is they have free valet parking and there is the lovely lounge and cocktail bar where you can pop in for a drink or coffee to meet friends before you eat.
